a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Bits from Randy Rigby Interview, 10/10

On DeMarre Carroll
You know what, DeMarre has, I’ll tell you, he has come almost out of nowhere. He’s, he’s, he’s hung around this league enough, and he is a scrapper. He, he’s got great energy, and when he, what I like about a player like DeMarre, when he’s given a chance, he puts everything into it, to earn the right then, to say, “I want you to keep me on this floor.”

And he hustles, he works hard, he’s got a great attitude, he’s a player that, you know, coaches really enjoy having, because they, they’re gonna go out and i–i–in practice, and work hard, and, and make our players work hard, so that’s gonna put them in better playing condition. And he, he’s one of those type of just hard-nosed, tough kids, but a great attitude kind of player. I, I like, I really like DeMarre.

On last season
I, I think back to last year, again with our fan base, I heard from so many fans, and I felt it. We, that was, even though we only made it to the first round, which was a huge to me a big accomplishment, but we had some great games, and you left the, the arena saying, “You know what? That was a lot of fun watching Jazz basketball, with that kind of energy and intensity that our players brought to the floor for us. That was some great entertainment, and well worth, worth my time.”

UDQM, on blowouts vs. close games
Once in a while, Gordon [Monson], I am ready for just a, you know, a blowout. Let me just relax a little bit, you know, and just take it in.

On close games becoming wonderful memories
You think back a couple of years ago, that, when we had, uh, uh, had a chance to literally bring an NBDL player come in, who hits that shot…

Gordon Monson, oh-so-helpfully: Sundiata Gaines.

Rigby: …Sundiata Gaines, and hits that shot at the end, to comeback that we made against Cleveland when, again,* LeBron was over there, and you see that kind of experience, and the crowd going wild…tho–those are, you remember that for a lifetime.**

* Not sure what the “again” is in reference to, as LeBron was not previously mentioned.** You remember generally what happened. Not who made the shot or anything like that.

And now we come to the scripted “Mutual Praising Hour” portion of the interview.

Scoreboard update
Spencer Checketts: When it comes to the scoreboard, and potentially a new scoreboard at EnergySolutions, now over the last couple years, concourses, concessions, larger Fanzz stores, the brew pubs, the VIP sponsor room upgrades [comes up for air] I mean, you’ve done a ton already, but…Jazz fans really want [a] scoreboard update.

Rigby: Well, this is something that I’ve really appreciated coming from Greg Miller, and Greg is very committed to really enhancing the experience for our fans. As the Millers have always been. And, and Greg loves new technologies and has been really pushing us to say, let’s do our due diligence to really make an impactful, new video experience for our fan base. Let’s, let’s do it right…

So we’re really doing our due diligence. This is gonna be a real impactful, I think, development improvement for us as an organization. And, and, so, and, again, want, Greg wants to make sure we’re doing it right, and he’s staying very close with me as we analyze what we’re doing on this.

So we’re, there’s some, there’s some really great improvements that have been going on with video in, Indiana’s putting in a new board this year, Houston’s putting in a new board, and of course with the new building then in Brooklyn, we’re going to literally in the next 30 days be visiting those arenas, looking at what they’ve done, understanding why they’ve done what they’ve done, what it takes to support it from a, from a production standpoint, operation standpoint, and really look at it. And then we’re, we’re gonna be really looking at some finalized plans for us that we can hopefully, right now we anticipate, maybe by next summer, us getting, going in that direction.

Improvements Jazz fans will see *this* season
We’ll, you’ll see a new scorers’ table, signage, and also some new signage that goes with our stantions.

On marketing the opponent to sell tickets
Well, you know what, I think it’s important that, number one, our fan base realiz–well, let me, let me step back. In all markets now, we’re such now a, a diverse culture. Y–we do have a base of, of unfortunately Laker fans in this marketplace. But as people move in a, in a, in, not only nationally, but internationally now, it’s interesting to see how people have, you have, people coming from all over the world, and they s–carry with them sometimes still their long-time tradition of being a Laker fan or a Spur fan…

You still have those pockets of people coming in, so we do have to market to say, “Hey, if you’re a fan of the Lakers, they’re coming in.” But also I think we market to a certain point to our own fan base to say, and hopefully for this market to appreciate, “Kobe Bryant or a Lebron James, some of the best to play basketball right now, or the best that have ever played the game of basketball. You have a chance to see those athletes come in to Salt Lake City in Utah and play the game that they love, and the game that our players love, and watch them compete at–you’re seeing the best of the best playing the game in Salt Lake City.”

Just remember, though, if you’re a fan of the opposing team and you buy tickets to the game, you should not cheer for your team.*

After the Jazz 1) requested additional games against the Kings; 2) blitzed fans with Jimmer-Kings ticket promos on TV broadcasts all year long last season, Rigby had this to say:

I think we were more than generous in our cheering for him, and like I said, I’m a BYU man, but I think he’s now a Sacramento King and we don’t need to be quite as gracious cheering him on to encourage him to come out and beat this team…I’m hoping our next home game against Jimmer, we’ll see a little less cheering throughout the whole game for Jimmer and a lot more cheering with us hopefully taking it to him.